Grounds for Goodness Downtown Eastside highlights the positive side of humanity

The virtual residency at the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival offers all kinds of ways to be reminded of how people help each other

SPONSORED POST BY VANCOUVER MOVING THEATRE

Ruth Howard, artistic director of Toronto’s Jumblies Theatre + Arts, will lead a virtual talk called Community Arts in the Time of COVID during Grounds for Goodness. Photo by Adrienne Marcus Raja

All too often, bad news makes headlines, and people find themselves bombarded by so many attention-grabbing stories of how people do hurtful things to one another. It can be hard to cut through so much negativity to focus on the good—all those times when humans show their compassionate, kind side. But examples of how people help, protect, and rescue others from harm abound in real life, history, memory, and folk tale.

Grounds for Goodness Downtown Eastside is a virtual residency that reflects the positivity that surrounds us, focusing on stories of support that are there if we look for them.

Produced by Toronto’s Jumblies Theatre + Arts and Vancouver Moving Theatre, the project is a highlight of the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival. The West Coast event, running October 30 to November 12, is part of a larger Jumblies’ Grounds for Goodness project that’s touring across Canada and will culminate in Toronto in June 2021.

Through a far-reaching mix of online and real-life events and activities, the public is welcome to join in with artists and community members and participate in any way they like.  

Goodness Story Cards is a participatory real-life exhibition of cards created by residents of the Downtown Eastside, Vancouver, and from across the land as part of the fest’s digital residence. Over the course of one month, in a process facilitated by outreach coordinator Rianne Svelnis, people contributed story cards at neighbourhood gathering places such as the Carnegie Community Centre and Art Tent and Peer Outreach at Strathcona Tent City. The creative cards bear images and stories of people lending a hand to others, drawn from legend, memory, imagination, history, family, and tale, all to be enjoyed, shared, traded, and collected. The exhibition runs until November 8 at two InterUrban Art Gallery / Culture Saves Lives and Skwachàys Lodge Hotel & Gallery  

Shifra Cooper leads Zoom Mechanics for Community Artists, a workshop to help people navigate the online platform for interactive art, on October 30.

Storytelling and Music, on November 1, is a sampling of work from two years of Jumblies’ Grounds for Goodness project, to inspire and kick off the Vancouver Downtown Eastside residency. This event features the world premiere of BESA, a multidisciplinary work inspired by the history and verbatim text about the rescue of Albanian Jews during World War II by Albanian Muslim people. It features song, music, dance, and appearances by ASL poet Tamyka Bullen and S7aplek (Bob Baker) of the Squamish Nation, who will give a traditional welcome.

In Good Hands on November 4 offers a chance to virtually swap stories about times people have helped others, while on November 5, leading female artists discuss overcoming adversity in the arts in a workshop called Talking Truths: Matriarchs Uprising.

Discovering Grounds for Goodness in the Downtown Eastside is a virtual interactive gallery on November 8 taking place live on Zoom. People can drop by to enjoy short performances, interactive activities, and art created by Downtown Eastside community members. This collaborative event is the finale of the Grounds for Goodness Downtown Eastside virtual residency.

Community Arts in the Time of COVID is a talk on November 12 featuring Jumblies’ artistic director Ruth Howard. Howard will reflect on the challenges—and what initially felt like the impossibility—of art-making with people in these isolating times and how it is still possible to maintain the values and practices of community arts in different and surprising ways. Some guests who were involved in the residency, including artist and DTES resident Stephen Lytton, will share insights, and there will be time for questions and responses.

For full details on all events, visit Grounds for Goodness or Heart of the City.